Twenty minutes ago, Derek Boogaard's mother and father, Joanne and Len, signed papers to donate their oldest son's brain to the Boston University researchers who are studying for brain disease in athletes.

In March, it was announced that even though Bob Probert died of heart failure, Probert also had the degenerative brain disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Probert was the second hockey player from the program at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy to be diagnosed with the disease. The other was 1960s enforcer Reggie Fleming.

From an Associated Press story in March, CSTE is a collaboration between Boston University Medical School and the Sports Legacy Institute that is attempting to address what it calls the "concussion crisis" in sports. The group has been at the forefront of research into head trauma in sports.

CTE is a progressive brain disease believed to be caused by repetitive trauma to the brain, including concussions or subconcussive blows.

I want to emphasize, this does not mean Boogaard died of complications of a concussion. It's just a selfless act by the Boogaards, who believe in these researchers who are trying to raise awareness when it comes to brain trauma.

"Derek loved sports and obviously in particular hockey, so we believe Derek would have liked to assist with research on a matter that had affected him later on in his career," Ryan Boogaard said

Right now, the cause of death of Boogaard is unknown and won't be known for at least a few weeks once test results and toxicology reports are back at the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office.

Boogaard's funeral will be in Regina, Saskatchewan, although the date is not yet known.

"Our family appreciates everybody's calls and condolences," Ryan Boogaard said. "Derek loved Minnesota. He loved it here. That's why he made it his place in the summertime. He loved the fans here. He loved playing in that building. He just loved everything about Minneapolis.

"Our family just appreciates everybody's outpouring of support. We spent a lot of today reading some of the comments online."

Here is a heartfelt statement by Wild owner Craig Leipold:

The entire Minnesota Wild family and hockey world was saddened to learn of the passing of Derek Boogaard. Derek was certainly one of the most popular players in Wild history with the fans and was a great community representative. He brought an exuberant smile to the rink every day and gave his all every night on the ice.

A number of thoughts go through my mind as I think of Derek. One is the first time I met him in early 2008. I was well aware of Derek's reputation as a tough guy. He was in the locker room in dress clothes, glasses and hair combed. I thought he was an investment banker. He introduced himself to me and we had a brief conversation. I didn't want to bother him because he was busy signing autographs. This was something, I came to learn, he did a lot of.

Second, Derek would never fight someone who wasn't in his “class”. He never wanted to hurt anybody. He had too much respect for the game, and the players had total respect for him.

Lastly, I received a phone call last night at 1:00 a.m. from my son, Connor, who is a freshman in college. Connor interned for the Wild last year, and his favorite person (not just player) was Derek. You could hear in his voice just how affected he was, since he had just learned of Derek's passing. He had a lot of questions, and I had no answers.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Boogaard family during this challenging time.

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Sarah McLellan is an Edmonton native. She graduated from the Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State, and covered the Coyotes for five years at the Arizona Republic before arriving at the Star Tribune in November 2017.